Water-closet



(No Model.)

S. S. FERGUSON.

y WATER oLosET. No. 441,360.

Patented'Nov. 25, 1890. l

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Nrrnn 'rares FFICE@ WATER-CLOSETr SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 441,360, dated November 25, 1890.

Application tiled July 2, 1890. Serial No. 357,474. (No model.)

T all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL S. FERGUSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Allegheny, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Vater Closets, of which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to provide a water -closet particularly adapted for asylums, jails, penal institutions, dac.; and the invention consists in the construction hereinafter described, and then pointed out in the claim.

In the drawings like letters refer to the same parts in the several figures, in which- Figure l is a vertical section of an old form of closet. Fig. 2 is a vertical section of my present form of closet, and Fig. 3 isaverused.

It is well known that the inmates of jails, asylums, penal institutions, &c., are in the habit of placing foreign substances-such as rags, straw, shucks, &c.-in the hoppers of closets, and it has been found that such substances often pass through the hoppers and lodge in the traps connected with the closets, and so interfere with the legitimate and proper functions of the latter and speedily cause the same to become offensive and hot-beds of disease. With a view7 of preventing this misuse of closets the outlet-openings of their hoppers has heretofore been contracted, as is shown at A in Fig. l of the drawings, so that it became difficult to pass foreign substances through such openings; but it was found that this remedy was inadequate, because such substances could often be forced through the contracted outlet, and inasmuch as they would then float out of sight before lodging in the bend or other portion of the trap, the persons introducing them would erroneously conclude that the substances had been safely passed along and out of the way. I have found that if the outlet-neck of the hopper be contracted at about the point of its junction with the flange for securing it to the trap and then ared or widened and extended into the latter below the normal water-line thereof any foreign substance which may be forced through the contracted outlet-neck would be prevented from floating out of sight and from lodgment in the bend of the vtraps by the lower extended and Haring portion of such neck, and the foreign substance may then be speedily observed and removed by the officials in charge of such matters. In this manner I largely, if not entirely, avoid the evils so commonly resulting from the misuse of closets by the inmates of institutions of the classI have mentioned, and, indeed, provide a safeguard which might well be employed wherever closets are liable to be used by careless or indifferent persons.

In Figs. 2 and 3 0f the drawings, B designates the contracted outlet-neck of my closets, which is preferably of such a size that even the hand of a person cannot be passed through the same, and in practice I have found two inches to be a convenient diameter for the same. In the same figures of the drawings, O marks the lower extended-outletneck, which is enlarged or flared and is designed to pass below the water-line of the trap, thereby making a Water-seal through which sewer-gas cannot pass. In practice I lind three and a half to four inches to be a suitable diameter for the lowest end of this flared portion of the outlet`neck.

D represents the trap illustrated and referred to.

It is obvious that the proportions above given may be varied and the form of the several parts modified by the skilled artisan without departing from the spirit of my invention.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is A In a Water-closet, the combination of atrap with a hopper having an outlet-neck contracted at a given point, flared below such point, and extended into said trap below the Water-line therein, substantially as shown and described.

SAMUEL S. FERGUSON.

Witnesses:

FRANCIS J. TORRANCE, W. H. BRADSHAW, 

